In U.S. patent Ser. No. 09/444,104, incorporated herein by reference, a stent delivery catheter is described that has a fixed guide wire at its distal end. Although this system for delivering a stent into a vessel of the human body has the advantage of providing an extremely small outside diameter for easy insertion through even the narrowest of arterial stenoses, it does have a potential difficulty in for those few cases when an intimal dissection occurs after stent implantation. Specifically, if a separate guide wire is used during stent implantation, it can be kept in place after the stent delivery catheter is removed thus allowing insertion of a second stent delivery system over the guide wire to repair any intimal dissection. However, if the guide wire is fixed to the stent delivery catheter, it will be removed with the stent delivery catheter after the stent has been delivered. Without a guide wire through that portion of the artery where an intimal dissection has occurred, it can be extremely difficult to place a second stent delivery catheter to deliver a second stent to repair such an intimal dissection.